This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2003-0055230 filed on Aug. 9, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method for guiding connection between a video device (e.g., TV) and external peripheral devices (e.g., AV devices such as an AV receiver, a digital versatile disc (DVD) player, a DVD recorder, a DVD Combo, a video cassette recorder (VCR), a cable set-top box, a satellite set-top box and a ground wave set-top box) through a screen so that a user can easily make the connection between the devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for effectively performing optimal connection configuration by recognizing the connection status between a video device and external peripheral devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to conventional methods, a TV and AV devices are connected through AV cables to transmit and receive video signals and audio signals, as shown in FIG. 1. For such connection, a user refers to the user's manuals of the respective AV devices to make connection therebetween through the AV cables. When the connection through the AV cables is completed, confirmation is made as to whether the functions of the AV devices are normally performed after the TV and the relevant AV devices are powered on. At this time, a method for confirming these functions involves switching to an external input to which a relevant AV device is connected and then to check whether a picture is normally displayed on the screen of the TV. If the picture is not displayed normally, the user should solve this problem by referring again to the user's manual of the relevant AV device or by receiving the assistance of other people.
For such a method, it is not easy for a general user having no knowledge of AV devices to correctly connect the AV devices without trial and error because the user must determine the methods for connecting the AV devices by himself/herself. Further, as the number of methods for making connection between a video device and peripheral devices increases with the development of new technologies, it is becoming more difficult for a user to recognize which connection method among a number of possible connection methods will establish optimal connection configuration. For example, if an AV device is a DVD player, a component terminal for video is connected to a TV to obtain the highest clear image quality, and a digital audio output for audio is connected to the TV to obtain the best audio. However, a general user may not know such a fact and attempt to connect a normal AV output to the TV to view video.
As described above, a general user having no knowledge on the functionality and properties of AV devices may undergo this trial and error process several times to connect the AV devices to a TV. Further, since it is difficult to confirm whether the connection is normally established before actually using the AV devices, considerable time and effort is needed.
Thus, there is a need for a method for informing a user of the optimal connection configuration by referring to information about respective AV devices upon connecting the respective AV devices to a TV.